A 10-year report card
In my second year as a high school teacher I attended a meeting concerning standards and instruction. After a long day of discussion, one of the veterans in the group ventured a guess about the shelf life of this most recent educational reform. "This too shall pass," he said as we all filed out. And, of course, this has often been the way of life in education. Hunker down and the storms of reform can pass over you without a dent.
However, the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) have now been with us for almost a decade. It hasn't passed off our radar. It seems appropriate to examine the effects of this reform, which has beaten the odds and managed to hang around the halls of our schools and legislatures for almost 10 years. In essence, have the benefits of the legislation outweighed the drawbacks?
Impeding on state power: The federal government has had at least a finger in the pie of education since the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Beginning in 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act extended this role. In 1994, under President Clinton, the feds added a finger or two with the Improving America's Schools Act. The No Child Left Behind legislation can be seen as a natural progression of this alteration in the balance of federal and state power. Some critics of NCLB cite this as detrimental. One benefit from greater federal control might be standardization of curriculum to allow students to compete with international students. This has not been the case. The only standardized aspect is that states must have a testing system and must have highly qualified teachers; what's taught and tested in Texas is quite different from what's taught and tested in California. Thus, one of the potential benefits of altering our federal structure has not been realized. Also, it should be noted that states can, and do, opt out of the NCLB provisions, with a loss of federal funds.
Teaching to the test: This is a misnomer, as all teachers "teach to the test"; we write the test and plan the instruction. The real criticism here is that the emphasis on multiple choice testing has caused a loss of "higher level" thinking and activities which support those processes. Also, NCLB emphasizes math and English, crowding out instruction in other areas, particularly in the elementary grades.
Highly qualified teachers: In 2003, only 57 percent of teachers in Kern County were considered "highly qualified" under NCLB, meaning that they possessed a degree in the discipline they were teaching in. By 2009 this number had climbed to over 98 percent for elementary courses and an average of over 90 percent for secondary courses. Clearly, NCLB has caused states to prepare and hire more qualified teachers. As a result of this legislation, teachers are also being given more time to plan and collaborate, which seems to be a plus.
Accountability: Two aspects of NCLB which have had a positive effect are the requirement to gather accurate graduation and dropout data, and the requirement to disaggregate data to analyze all student groups and their achievement. In 2001, the high school graduation rate for Kern County was 84.8 percent; by 2008 this numbered had dropped to 73.5 percent. However, these numbers are deceptive. Previous to NCLB, California had a system which played fast and loose with graduation numbers. NCLB forced California and other states to create an honest system of tracking students for graduation and dropout data. Also, previous to NCLB a school or district might have test scores, which, when considered as a whole, looked pretty good. It was possible for students who scored well to mask the poor performance of students who were failing. These students were often minority or socio-economically disadvantaged, creating what is often referred to as the "achievement gap." NCLB requires that data for all subgroups of students be examined. This forces educators to examine the success of all of our students, and design appropriate interventions so that all students succeed.
Finally, NCLB has been a little like getting on the scale and looking in a mirror undressed for those of us in education. It's been painful, but necessary. After all, we are here for the students and to create a bright future for our state and nation. NCLB, with all of its flaws, has helped us refocus on this truism.
Terri Richmond of Bakersfield is a high school history teacher and a former Kern County Superintendent of Schools teacher of the year.
